 The Atmosphere Collection As many followers of this site will probably have read at some point, one of our favorite fantasies at the Loud Bassoon is the one where you end up dead and, upon entering heaven, you get access to a computer that will print out lists of all your actual favorite stuff from your lifetime, with no artsy posturing or intellectualization. "What?!" you scream at God, clutching a handful of crumpled dot matrix pages with perforated spool feed strips flailing every which way. "Journey was NOT my second favorite band of all time. I HATED Journey. Well, I liked Captured, but that's it!! Oh, and Escape, and side 2 of Departures, but NOT SIDE 1, you fat FUCK!" Well, as you can see, I am certainly in no danger of ending up in heaven. What a shame, too, 'cause I will never get the printout that confirms Midnight Rainshower to be my favorite album of all time. "But it's just rain, right?" Well, yes. 60 minutes of beautiful rain, an instant lobotomy for any over-the-top day. I have been listening to this disc since it was released in 1987. It got me through my tortured high school and college years, and recently I noticed that I had sold it back at some point, no doubt in one of my all too frequent "Shit, I need lots of money, stat!" phases. So I bought it again, and I've been listening to it nonstop. It's ridiculous, I know. It's just rain. But I know this disc in and out, and I love it eternally. I've never heard an environmental disc that even comes close to Ryko's Atmosphere Collection series … not sure why I feel that way. Surely every $4.99 "Sounds of the Rainforest" type bargain white noise CD is the same, right? Someone with a DAT recorder and a microphone setting up shop in a tranquil locale, and rolling tape? I don't know … these discs do way more for me, and this one in particular stands out as being just as good if not better than most of my favorite pop albums. Paul McCartney would probably be stupefied, and a little hurt. "You mean, you like the sound of rain better than Ram? *whimper* Better than Pepper? Wait, perhaps you're referring to the Beatles song "Rain?" Not one of mine, but you know, I was in the Beatles, a rockin' little combo, maybe you remember them?" Uh, sure Paul. Why am I supposedly talking to Paul McCartney about this? Anyway, it may be the presentation and packaging (tasteful, not cheap, and well executed in series form), or it may just be a form of nostalgia of which I seem to be the only sufferer (that is, nostalgia for the early CD era, 1986-1989). But I am being utterly truthful in saying I love Midnight Rainshower like few CDs ever made. Relaxing, healing, restoring, and quite honestly: just beautiful. I'm a fucking sap, I know, but there you have it.
Review by P.J. Gripper |
